Free Comic Book Day

[Red Oak Kid]

Just wondering what Free Comic Book Day means to the posters on this forum.

[Rob Allen]

It's the one day a year that I go to the local comic shop. I was busy this year so I couldn't stay and browse, but I always pick up as many of the FCBD freebies as they let me. This year they raised their limit from 5 per person to 10, and by the time I got there they only had 10 different books available. Some of them are flipbooks, so I almost picked up 2 copies of some of them before discovering that they were duplicates.

[The Confessor]

To me, it means FREE COMICS!

Actually, I don't partake in FCBD any more because Diamond Distribution made it prohibitively expensive for my LCS to partake in the event (or so the owner tells me). However, up until 2 or 3 years ago, he used to hold the event at his shop and I was always down there on the day. But I've gotta say that with the exception of a few Amazing Spider-Man one-shots that were rather good, and an EC horror sampler I picked up a few years back, every comic I've ever taken home from the event has turned out to be crap...and I used to make damn sure I got a copy of most things that were on offer in any given year.

[Romero]

Well, this year I brought both daughters with me, ages 5 and 8. They seemed into it, especially the younger one who is getting more interested in super-heroes, actually. Our shop gave out 10 books each. We all got some interesting stuff. The Archaia hardcover anthology book with the Mouse Guard story and a couple of other things was amazing. That Spider-man Season One book was crap. I didn't realize it was the 1,305,097th retelling of his origin. The flipbook thing gets a bit old because I would like a longer more complete story. However, FCBD did introduce to some books I truly love like Courtney Crumrin and Leave it to Chance.

[berk]

I've never really understood it. There aren't enough comics out there that appeal to me to make it likely that a random free one will be something I'll want to read.

But I have nothing against the idea. I suppose it just doesn't make any difference to me one way or another.

[inferno]

I got some FCBD editions of reprint classic comics.

One reprinted Crockett newspaper strips from 1942, another Moomin newspaper strips from 1956, and another a My Favorite Martian comic book from 1964.

The second LCS I went to had run out of most of the FCBD books, so they had put out some beat-up stuff from the $1/less box on the free table... I picked up the first two issues of Doug Moench's Captain Marvel (1979) and a 1982 issue of Roger Stern's Doctor Strange for free.

[Jezebel Bond]

Just wondering what Free Comic Book Day means to the posters on this forum.

It means freebies...I give them away in sets of 3-4 especially if the kid is cute. My dealer and I also have Free Playboy day for our better customers...but that's another story.

[benday-dot]

I think Romero is onto the real purpose of FCBD. I haven't attended for a few years, but when I did it really seemed it was all about the kids, a neat opportunity for children to pick up some possibly fun reading material for free. That doesn't happen too often, so I think its a good thing. It seems to work as there were lineups of kids with their parents looking to discover or further expansion into the fun world of comics. I personally, as berk said, am not likely to find much in the random assortment of comics out there. Although, I did manage to pick up the delightful Cap and Avengers one-shot with great Chris Samnee art from a year or two ago.

[dupont2005]

I would have liked to attend, but I had plans this year for Cinco De Mayo. I've gone a few times. Sometimes fun, sometimes it's just "give me the free comic." The new LCS tries to be a hangout place. I don't hang out there, but I would have liked to stop by on Saturday and say Hi.

[Kid Montana]

I dont really get the concept as I have never participated. I have bought a few 'free' comics from Mile High over the last year however. Didn't make the connection until they arrived with FCBD on the cover. This year I bought a $50 book so I could get 10 of the FCBD books I wanted. Well, I want them for my kiddie section. I keep those out for my kids and their friends to read. I was waiting to buy that particular book until they had a decent give away, so it worked out well. Looking foreward to that Mouse Guard book though. For me the best free comics are the digital ones I download to the Ipad.

[grizla]

FCBD is great! I was really glald i remembered in time this year! I really liked the dark horse flip books adding up to 5 short stories (love buffy and firefly) i am planning to follow one new title that i found out about because of FCBD. The sales many stores put on are great for me too, i never have any $$$ for comics, so 25% of the whole store is a big deal for me, a chance to fill gaps in my titles without feeling too guilty. The hardback mouseguard is a very nice little book too.

[DubipR]

It means freebies...I give them away in sets of 3-4 especially if the kid is cute. My dealer and I also have Free Playboy day for our better customers...but that's another story.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.


My FCBD was volunteering for the Hero Initiative at my LCS. I gave out free comics and flyers about the Initiative while showing off our newest thing:

Julie Schwartz Cover Proofs!
These are the original proofs from Julie's own collection. We sold over 100 of them so far and have about 250 or so left. Sadly no one bought any, but the people loved seeing them. Neal Adams signed a few, Joe Gialla did as well. I didn't want any comics but my shop had 30% off all items in the shop so I picked up the Guillem March art HC.

[dupersuper]

Just wondering what Free Comic Book Day means to the posters on this forum.

Free comics? At my LCS it also means cheap comics (sale), plus free cake and a draw of some sort. Plus a crowded store. The local library sale is the same day, so I also associate it with cheap/free books in general. It's usually the weekend of the first super hero movie release and the weekend a local fair opens here for the first weeks of Summer, plus this year it was on Cinqo De Mayo, so it means an awesome weekend in general.

[CromagnonMan]

this time i got 2000AD FCBD and Transformers 80.5

2000ad was all reprints except a 4-page Dredd story which was pretty enjoyable but just a promo really. Transformers the same except for the 'enjoyable' part.

i usually always get a couple. but they nearly always turn out to be little more than flyers/promotional material. Marvel's are usually pretty good though, especially the ASM ones which have tied into current storylines.

[Kid Montana]

Here is an example where FCBD lead to an actual sale. Finding Gossamyr was not on my order list but has been added as a result of FCBD. The FCBD issue sets up what happens in the series.